1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a removable and consumable cartridge suited for use in an image forming apparatus. More particularly, it relates to a consumable cartridge of which the user can identify the provider at the time of loading it in an image forming apparatus to tell with ease if it is provided by the manufacturer of the image forming apparatus or some other provider. The present invention also relates to an image forming apparatus adapted to notify the user of the fact that a consumable cartridge provided by a provider other than the manufacturer of the apparatus is loaded therein if such is the case.
2. Description of the Related Art
Image forming apparatus including electrophotographic copying machines, electrophotographic printers, electrophotographic facsimile machines, electrophotographic multifunction devices, ink-jet printers and ink-jet multifunction devices are provided with cartridges filled with respective consumables such as toner and ink and as the toner or the ink is totally consumed, the corresponding consumable cartridge is replaced by a new one. In this way, consumables are supplied to the image forming apparatus.
There has been in recent years and still is a trend that third parties (third vendors) other than the manufacturer of an image forming apparatus manufacture and sell consumable cartridges that can be loaded in the image forming apparatus. However, those consumables supplied by third vendors other than the manufacturer of the image forming apparatus can include those that do not match the image forming process of the image forming apparatus. Therefore, techniques of detecting consumable cartridges other than those supplied by the manufacturer and issuing a predetermined warning have been proposed to cope with such a situation.
For example, JP 2003-195698-A (Patent Document 1) describes an image forming apparatus having an image forming section including a removable process unit and a scanner for scanning an original, characterized by also having a control section for causing the scanner to read out the image on the sheet annexed to the process unit and determining if the process unit is a genuine product or not on the basis of the read out image data.